Tenants Are Leaving This Thai Department Store in Droves Because of the Decrepit Pata Zoo

Posted on 16 July 2021 at 12:00AM by PETA

Located on the top floors of the Pata Pinklao Department Store in Bangkok, Thailand, is the Pata Zoo — one of the worst zoos in the world. After hearing from PETA about the profound suffering of the animals there, brands like Watsons and Lotus’s have confirmed that they won’t be renewing their leases at the shopping mall.

A female gorilla named Bua Noi has been all alone behind bars at the zoo since 1983. Then there’s Kat, an orangutan who should be swinging in Borneo’s jungle canopy but instead is crammed inside a dark and dingy cage with little opportunity for psychological stimulation or physical exercise.

All the animals at this indoor zoo are suffering—denied sunshine, fresh air, and opportunities to exercise or to engage in any of the types of behavior that give their lives meaning. Social animals like gorillas can only thrive in the company of their same-species families, but at the Pata Zoo, they’re denied this fundamental need—for decades, in Bua Noi’s case.

PETA has reached out to the Pata Zoo’s director multiple times with offers to help transfer the animals to reputable sanctuaries, where they would have trees to climb, grass to roll in, and other animals to socialize with. Indefensibly, he has refused.

Celebrities like Gillian Anderson and Cher have also publicly called out Pata Zoo for its horrific treatment of animals.

Good People Of Bangkok
I Know You Will Understand & Help Me Stop The Torturing Of
Innocent Animals. It Is a Sin.Please Help Me Bring Peace to these Animals.
&Free Them From Pata Zoo…Shopping Mall
Inshallah.
🙏🏽🙏🏼Namaste

— Cher (@cher) December 6, 2020

In a letter to the zoo’s director, Gillian Anderson entreated him to release the animals:

As you surely know, the Pata Zoo has been called one of the saddest places in the world. By making the decision to close the zoo and send the animals to reputable sanctuaries with the help of my friends at PETA, you can end the growing controversy and show the world that animals deserve mercy.

Cosmetics company Cute Press and beauty-supply company Oriental Princess are also ending their tenancy at the mall. PETA has written to MR.DIY and AIS Telewiz, which are both still tenants, asking them to follow in the footsteps of Watsons and Lotus’s by ending their lease at the mall and to push for the animals to be transferred to a sanctuary.